Today is Giving Tuesday! There is no better way to get into the holiday spirit than by supporting FDR Four Freedoms Park with a gift.

Americans had been accustomed to celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared the holiday in the midst of the Civil War. In 1939, though, FDR shocked the nation by proclaiming the third Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, hoping to boost retail sales towards the end of the Great Depression. Atlantic City’s mayor, Thomas D. Taggart, Jr., coined the rescheduled holiday “Franksgiving.” The country mostly ignored President Roosevelt’s proclamation. Two years later, on November 26, 1941, just a few weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into World War II, FDR signed a bill officially making the fourth Thursday of November the official Thanksgiving Holiday.

At FDR Four Freedoms Park, we are thankful for supporters like you. Help us to defend and advance the legacies of FDR and the Four Freedoms by making a gift today in honor of Giving Tuesday.